OOAK Table Tennis Forum

So, a blog. Or maybe my collected ramblings, who knows. Anyway, kicking off with some background - I've been playing table tennis competitively since I was about 13 years old in Ireland, but I guess competitively has lots of different meanings - I played in school for my school team and was the best player in my year, so that gave me the impetus to stay playing till I was about 16. Then studying and other sports took over and I took several years off. I only returned to playing as a good friend of mine challenged me to a game as part of a rackelton tournament. He played for the university team at the time and assumed he'd kick my ass, however he didn't, and that encouraged me to start playing again. However, this was all super casual - there was one nights training a week with a coach, and there was one night of free play. The university season culminated in the intervarsity tournament every year, which was basically a giant boozing session with some high quality table tennis thrown in (not by me I hasten to add). I stayed playing for my university for another five years, and given that I was nearly finished college when I restarted, that meant I was still playing for them 3 years after I had officially left

Anyway, post college, I once more stopped playing - until another three years had passed when my younger brother wanted to enter a team in the local league - Leinster League, division 5. I played my first game for his team in 1996, with a ruptured cruciate liagament in my left knee while waiting for surgery. Not mega bright that, but hey. The teams in Division 5 were, with the exception of our team, ancient old codgers. All of whom had "funny" bats. I say "funny" as we had never, ever played against anti or long pips before, and our entire teams playing strategy was to close our eyes and loop the first slightly weak return we saw. In a shocker (to us), the codgers beat us 8-1. Combined age differential must have been over 100 years. The difference between the table tennis I knew and the table tennis these guys played was astonishing to me, and a little bizzare. However, the team perservered, and eventually we finished the season in 2nd place. Every subsequent year, with a few personnel changes, the team was promoted, until before I knew it, we were playing in Divison 1 - where it became apparent, we had reached a pretty significant ceiling. Having received no coaching at all, myself and a colleague decided to go to the Alan Cooke & Nicola Deaton training week in the UK, which for us was a massive change in how we viewed table tennis, giving a week of our holidays up just for tt. This was fantastic, and made a huge difference to how we trained and played - we returned a year later for another session. In the meantime, we also started going to all possible domestic tournaments, where I had little / no success in terms of trophys, but took some scalps from players ranked in the top 20 in the country.

For the following league season, we managed to recruit two very strong french players, and "volunteered" to play in the premier league (at the time, the league had not got enough high standard players and they were willing to accept anyone who was willing to take the beatings!). We did pretty well, and that convinced me that I could compete with pretty much anyone in the country. My best wins were over players now ranked in the top 10, but most of these were "upsets", at no stage was I ever favoured to win these games.

Then, a huge change for me, I moved to Switzerland to start a new job. What a difference! In Ireland, the Leinster league is the countries biggest, it has 7 divisions of roughly 6 teams, with 3 players per teams for a total of around 126 players. In my region in Swizerland, AVVF (Vaud-Valais-Fribourg), there is a total of 1020 members playing league. Results are online (http://www.avvf.ch), along with rankings every month. Its a much longer season, starting in August and we are still playing promotion - relegation and cup matches now! I get training twice a week from one of the best defensive players I have ever seen, Akos Maklari http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z51soxPOQCQ&feature=related, and my ranking has risen on the Swiss system from D3 when I arrived to between C8 and C9 now (its a pyramid system, bottom is D1, top is A20 - my coach is an A19). My plan with this blog is to outline my training and progression, and travails of a mid level amateur balancing my desire to play at a reasonable level with the challenges of work and life.

Next entry will outline the tragic tale of my new club (Nyon) and our quest for promotion this season.

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Tibhar Stratus Power Defence
TSP Curl P4, 0.5 sponge
Stiga Calibra LT Sound
and my chickening out setup..
Donic Waldner Allplay
Stiga Boost TC 2.0 forehand
Stiga Boost TC 1.8 backhand

That was an easy read Looking forward to reading more.

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Setups (click on writings to read reviews):
1) Defence III / TSP P4 (0,5) / M3 (2,0)
2) Defence II / Joola Octopus (0,5) / M3 (2,0)
3) Ross Leidy "White Shadow" / P1R (1,3) / Hexer PS (1,7)

Why is the site in French? Is that the main language in Switzerland? Have I understood it correctly that you are now over 40 Boosttc? Its not too easy to work out your site for someone who doesn't speak French with only Google Translator to help, but its interesting to try LOL.

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I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!! Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

Yes, the site is in french as the part of switzerland I live is is Suisse Romand, where French is the language spoken - and yes, I am also into the over 40 category now, which was fantastic this year as there is an additional 040's league. The standard in the 040's is generally higher, some of my most enjoyable matches this year were in that league. Its been a roller coaster of a year actually, we had a fantastic league season that so far looks like it will actuallly end up in bitter disappointment through a very odd set of circumstances. Personally, my game has really come on since I started getting more consistent and regular training, and I'm more confident now against a much higher standard of player than I was when I arrived, I've finally recognized what my strengths and weaknesses actually are. Anyway, thanks for reading, more to come when I get a chance to write my missive on the leage campaign, at this stage it will be a novella.

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Tibhar Stratus Power Defence
TSP Curl P4, 0.5 sponge
Stiga Calibra LT Sound
and my chickening out setup..
Donic Waldner Allplay
Stiga Boost TC 2.0 forehand
Stiga Boost TC 1.8 backhand

any chance of you coming back boost?

also there are now 11 divisions ( shield) and around 8 in the league.

and 5 teams teams per div

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my youtube channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/decoyla?feature=mhum

Main: / secondary / LP
Blade: DHS Hurricane hao/ Blade- Hurricane Hao 2
FH: Skyline 3(Blue Sponge)/ FH- Nittaku H3 pro
BH: Omega Asia/ BH- Calibra Tour H

I'd say it's unlikely for a few years decoy - I am back in Dublin every few months, but I think I'll be here for a while. All depends on work! Its good to see the progress of the game in Ireland as well - I see there was a slideshow on the nationals on the homepage of the irish times this week, that has to be a first!

_________________
Tibhar Stratus Power Defence
TSP Curl P4, 0.5 sponge
Stiga Calibra LT Sound
and my chickening out setup..
Donic Waldner Allplay
Stiga Boost TC 2.0 forehand
Stiga Boost TC 1.8 backhand

the nationals were a month or so ago

if you are comming over make sure to tell me then you come down to Leinster for a knock .

also we just lost our cup final....

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my youtube channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/decoyla?feature=mhum

Main: / secondary / LP
Blade: DHS Hurricane hao/ Blade- Hurricane Hao 2
FH: Skyline 3(Blue Sponge)/ FH- Nittaku H3 pro
BH: Omega Asia/ BH- Calibra Tour H

So, getting back to this after an absence. New season has started and we are now playing division 2. Its a pyramid scheme here in terms of how they organize the league, so there are 16 teams in division 2, 32 in div 3, 48 in div 4 and 5. We started the season poorly after not really doing a proper pre season, and lost our first match to a pretty weak team. The team has been strengthened a lot with a new player to our club who previously played national league, so losing to teams ranked below us was not part of the plan! Anyway, we picked up after that and have won our last 5 matches on the bounce. Tonight we played a team of nippers on the rise, we won 6-4 but it was seriously tough. Their number 1 player is ranked 3rd in his age group in switzerland and he played great - he's training 6 days a week, tough to compete against. For me, my highlight of the night was playing their 2nd best player who is a solid twiddling, chopper / looper / retriever - long pips on the bh, with I think a 1.2 sponge or so. Twiddles really well, great to see a junior with a rounded defensive game! Anyway, he annoyed me mightly by cho'ing every point he won, even off a service error by me, so enraged was I by the poor sportsmanship that I battered him senseless in 3 - 5-4 and 5. Cho indeed. Another nice highlight is the really sociable way teams here all go for a drink and a meal together after the game, it makes for a nice ambiance.

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Tibhar Stratus Power Defence
TSP Curl P4, 0.5 sponge
Stiga Calibra LT Sound
and my chickening out setup..
Donic Waldner Allplay
Stiga Boost TC 2.0 forehand
Stiga Boost TC 1.8 backhand

you gotta beat those kids down that cho till their throats give in.
you might be happy to know that i might be playing in Div 2 now as well over here

_________________
my youtube channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/decoyla?feature=mhum

Main: / secondary / LP
Blade: DHS Hurricane hao/ Blade- Hurricane Hao 2
FH: Skyline 3(Blue Sponge)/ FH- Nittaku H3 pro
BH: Omega Asia/ BH- Calibra Tour H

Nice one decoy, onward and upwards - did you move from leinster in the end?

_________________
Tibhar Stratus Power Defence
TSP Curl P4, 0.5 sponge
Stiga Calibra LT Sound
and my chickening out setup..
Donic Waldner Allplay
Stiga Boost TC 2.0 forehand
Stiga Boost TC 1.8 backhand

yup. ive yet to pay the fees for CYM though. and ive been going down there the whole summer

_________________
my youtube channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/decoyla?feature=mhum

Main: / secondary / LP
Blade: DHS Hurricane hao/ Blade- Hurricane Hao 2
FH: Skyline 3(Blue Sponge)/ FH- Nittaku H3 pro
BH: Omega Asia/ BH- Calibra Tour H

Sheesh, I haven't been great at updating this...anyway, nearly half way through the league season here, we've played 7 matches, won 5, lost 1 and drawn one. I'm writing this post in the back of the team car, heading home from out latest match, in darkest valais - lovely to see the mountains coated with snow. What's even better is that we won 7-3, with just one blemish on my account tonight, losing to a fairly average chopper, who does a great job of hitting backspin with his lp. I know, I know, why did I give him any? Last game of the night, match was won and I was too dozy. Also lovely few glasses of red wine and charcuterie afterwards - lucky to have a great competitve league on our doorstep. My game has stalled a little this season, I've had several good wins, but too many losses against weaker players - guilty of lowering my game too much when I play lower ranked players. Need to find some killer instinct from somewhere. Anyhoo - we are a few point behind the league leaders, one team gets promoted only, and we want it to be us - we play them next...shizzle is about to get real.

_________________
Tibhar Stratus Power Defence
TSP Curl P4, 0.5 sponge
Stiga Calibra LT Sound
and my chickening out setup..
Donic Waldner Allplay
Stiga Boost TC 2.0 forehand
Stiga Boost TC 1.8 backhand

good stuff. coming back over anytime soon?

_________________
my youtube channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/decoyla?feature=mhum

Main: / secondary / LP
Blade: DHS Hurricane hao/ Blade- Hurricane Hao 2
FH: Skyline 3(Blue Sponge)/ FH- Nittaku H3 pro
BH: Omega Asia/ BH- Calibra Tour H